Actress, writer and producer Michaela Coel’s ‘I May Destroy You’ a semi-autobiographical TV drama series about her own experience of sexual assault got rave reviews – “universal acclaim” on Metacritic. So there were yowls of outrage when it didn’t get a nod at the Golden Globe nominations though the show has subsequently in the SAG Awards.
Michaela Coel was born in London on 1 October 1987 to Ghanaian parents, went to university but left when she became a full-immersion Pentecostalist, then went to drama school, gave poetry readings; and in her late twenties wrote and starred in her own breakout TV vehicle Chewing Gum, a BAFTA-award winning comedy about a sex-starved immigrant kid in London’s public housing. She moved into serious drama in the TV mini-series ‘Black Sun Rising’, playing a survivor of the Rwandan genocide fighting for justice at the international criminal court. Her performance was described as “mesmerising” and having “incandescent intensity”.
In 2016 she had her drink spiked and was assaulted by two men which became the inspiration for ‘I May Destroy You’. In it she is less concerned with the failures of the justice system than with ‘the psychology of the self: How do you become whole again after trauma breaks you open?’ It’s her attempt to make sense of the senseless.
She’s a Sun Libra in a creative square to Neptune; with a highly-charged, super-intense Mercury Pluto in Scorpio; and an angry and adventurous Saturn Uranus in Sagittarius square Mars and trine Jupiter. Her charming Venus in Libra opposes Jupiter and probably squares a workaholic Capricorn Moon.
Her midpoints indicate passionate enthusiasm, a turbo-charged communicative Mercury, creative talent and an explosive need to upset the status quo.
When the assault took place in 2016 she was on her First Saturn Return with a disorienting square from tr Neptune; tr Pluto was around the square to her Venus, perhaps conjunct her Moon and conjunct her Solar Arc Saturn for an emotionally damaging and distressing time. With an explosive tr Uranus opposition her Solar Arc Mars.
She’s on a confident and successful roll this year and next with tr Pluto square her Jupiter; though with some challenges and aggravation from tr Pluto trine her Mars.
Her creative and seeking-soul 7th Harmonic is strong as is her ‘obsessive dream’ 11H.
A force to be reckoned with.
Pic: JustJohal
I think the jury might have found it hard to place “I May Destroy You” to right category, or be hesitant to have three British products in “Best Television Motion Picture” category where I think it should have been at, or something similarly nonsensical. Even I have to say the competition there is stiff, the only show I haven’t seen yet is “Small Axe”, which I see is originally a BBC show and probably will be made available here through public broadcaster..
Personally, I was captivated by “I May Destroy You” and the way it felt “real” to me. It turns out I share a lot astrologically with Michaela Coel, so that’s not a surprise. My Scorpio conjunction is composed differently, but having had an October 1st Libra grandmother with a Scorpio Mercury in aspect to Pluto with a rare psychological eye (she didn’t have a chance to study beyond 6th grade, but she always said she would have loved to study psychology), I think this is what helps Michaela to create complex characters capable of invoke different emotions in watchers.
She’s a remarkable creator! I’m glad this show met a lot of acclaim – Netflix lowballed her and she moved on HBO. Liked her ever since Chewing Gum series